Celebrity Health & Fitness

Emma Watson grew up in the spotlight as one of the stars of the “Harry Potter” franchise and secretly struggled with body and weight issues just like other adolescent girls.

Fortunately, Watson has learned to accept who she is, Examiner reported. “I’ve accepted my body shape more as I’ve got older,” said Emma.

The slender Watson added: “I went through a stage of wanting to have that straight-up-and-down model look, but I have curves and hips, and in the end you have to accept yourself as you are.”

Watson watched as her body went through changes as she was growing up and knew she’d just have to be patient. “My weight has fluctuated between a size 6 and a 10. When you’re growing, your body is still figuring itself out and it takes a while to settle down,” said Emma.

“I keep telling myself that I’m a human being, an imperfect human being who’s not made to look like a doll, and that who I am as a person is more important than whether at that moment I have a nice figure.”

Watson also knows well the pressure young women face to lose weight, even in everyday life.

“It makes me sad to hear girls constantly putting themselves down,” said Emma. We have these unbelievably high expectations of ourselves, when actually we’re human beings and out bodies have a function.”

“We say that the pressure is coming from men but actually it’s from each other. I think women feel so much pressure these days and it can turn us against each other. But we really damage our own confidence when we put ourselves down, so I try not to.”

Watson explained: “I wish someone had told me at 15: ‘You accept the love that you think you deserve.’ I would have approached my relationships completely differently if they had. I like this idea of quality control – that we don’t have to accept just anyone into our lives.”

Emma added: “People talk about love as though it just happens to you – as though you’re a victim in it all, when actually you can make good choices and bad.

“But women have a natural tendency to want to nurture and take care of men. I tend to date people who are quite introspective. I like deep thinkers,” she added.